Charting the Chasers after Kansas: Gibbs gaff, Carl’s wild ride

The normally sedate racing at Kansas with long green flag runs and plenty of fuel strategy was nowhere to be found Sunday. There were enough cautions to keep the racing interesting and the last five laps were some of the best all season as Carl Edwards caught leader and eventual winner Jimmie Johnson in one last dash for the victory.

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Edwards charged into the final turns on the final lap on a suicide run diving under and ahead of Johnson then careening into the outside wall. It was move that he admitted later was something he has got away with in video games and wasn’t sure if it would work in real life. In a case of life not imitating art, or in this case video games, the concrete wall did slow Edwards however just enough to allow Johnson to win. The move though will certainly be on the highlight reel for 2008 and showed just how bad Edwards wanted to win at the track he calls home.

Kyle Busch’s woes continued and his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates joined him this week after miserable afternoons at Kansas.

1. Jimmie Johnson 5575 +1. With his fifth win of the year, Johnson has asserted himself as one of the drivers to beat. Slow steady adjustments on the car and brilliant, lightening fast work in the pits was the order of the day. On the last pit stop of the afternoon, Johnson’s crew was fast enough to get him out in front of Edwards, and from there he went on to victory. It was the perfect ending to the perfect day and may just lead to a perfect championship at the end of the season.

2. Carl Edwards. 5565 -10  -1. Edwards looked strong all day Sunday but simply got beat at the end with Johnson’s team making the right tweaks to their car and the fast pit stop that got them ahead of Edwards. Edwards made a white knuckle hold your breath run at the end, but came up short. Earlier in the season, Edwards himself admitted that they needed to work on their pit stops, Sunday showed that there may be just a little bit more needs to be done. Had Edwards beat Johnson out of the pits on the final stop, the ending could have been very different. He’s not out of it by any means, but needs a total team effort if he hopes to beat someone on the very top of their game like Johnson.
 
3. Greg Biffle 5540 –35. Another week another solid run by Greg Biffle. He charged past Jeff Gordon on the final straightway to come home third Sunday. Biffle and his team chased their car all day, never quite finding the right balance they needed to contend for the win. Like his Roush-Fenway Racing teammate Carl Edwards, Biffle and his team will find it hard to compete with the perfection of Johnson. But should Johnson falter both Edwards and Biffle are in position to pounce. 

4. Jeff Burton 5454 –121. Burton’s woes began before the green flag even dropped. The tachometer in his Chevy needed changing while he was still on pit road. He started the race in the back and fought his way through the field to finish seventh. He’s 121 points behind the leader and not necessarily out of the running but will need to stage some stellar runs in the coming weeks to be considered a true contender.

5. Kevin Harvick 5439 -136. Harvick continued his run of top-10 finishes coming home sixth Sunday. Harvick has not now finished outside of the top-10 since Indy in August. But while strong top 10 finishes may work to get a driver into the Chase, there comes a time when top-5’s and a few wins are needed to make them a player. That time is now.

6 Jeff Gordon 5437 -138 +2. Gordon admitted Sunday that he was as sick as he’d ever been inside a racecar. He may want to take his time getting better. For the first time in several races, Gordon looked strong and in the end was barely beaten at the line by Greg Biffle to come home fourth. That was Gordon’s best finish since the Chase started and his best finish since Sonoma. Should Gordon find where they hid his Mojo, he may make a last desperate charge towards the front of the field, if he can put together a win or two.

7 Clint Bowyer 5411 -164  -1. Bowyer struggled from the start Sunday. First he was called in for a pit road penalty for jumping the start. Then on lap 221, Bowyer was hit with another penalty, this one for speeding on pit road. He did have a moment or two of glory, running as high as second at one point, but in the end he faded and finished 12th. With Sunday’s like Kansas, Bowyer can always look forward to next year.

8 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 5385 -190  +1. Earnhardt seemed strong at the start of the race, but faded quickly. Fatigue may have been a factor, but the team never seemed to have the right set up and Earnhardt was forced to fight an ill handling race car all day and finished 13th. The team that at one time seemed to have a lot of potential just hasn’t seemed to live up to the hype. The Chase isn’t over, but with continued performances like Sunday, Earnhardt Juniors chances to win will be.

9 Matt Kenseth 5383 -192  +1. Kenseth is the only ray of light in an otherwise dark tunnel of those near the bottom of the point standings. Kenseth suffered a missing leg nut that forced him back in, then a spin at the hands of Casey Mears, and yet came back to finish fifth. And he led the second most laps of the race next to Johnson. With strong runs like that, Kenseth could very well make the comeback of the year.

Once place I would not want to have been is in the office of Joe Gibbs Monday morning.

After having a driver who seemed to have the Chase locked up, and two drivers with a reasonable shot for good showings, Joe Gibbs Racing now finds their teams at the bottom of the heap.

10 Denny Hamlin 5332 -243  +1. Hamlin is the only driver who could hold his head up, at least a little bit. Hamlin hasn’t been running badly, just not up to what a driver in the Chase should be. After a top five at Richmond and a top 10 at Loudon, he suffered a terrible finish at Dover,38th. Hamlin needed a strong run to get back into the mix, but never showed any real spark Sunday at Kansas and finished 11th.

Unfortunately for Joe Gibbs Racing, Denny Hamlin is the shining star.

11 Tony Stewart 5320 -255 –4. Stewart took the biggest tumble of the week falling four positions and it’s safe to say he won’t win another championship with Joe Gibbs Racing. The saddest part is he may just have done it to himself. During a pit stop Sunday, Stewart bumped a crewman from the Red Bull Racing in the pit stall directly in front of his. As he left the pit box, another crewmember kicked the side of the car. Not long after, on lap 129, as Stewart was racing Red Bull Racing driver Brian Vickers, the two bumped coming out of turn four. Stewart spun into the infield grass while Vickers continued undamaged. Stewart would eventually be forced in and lose six laps fixing the damage. He finished the day 40th. There was some debate that Stewart may have intentionally ran into Vickers. Only Stewart knows, but if he did, then he has nobody to blame but himself when he sees someone else celebrating the Championship.

12. Kyle Busch 5264 -311. Busch started the day at the bottom of the points, and ended the day at the bottom of the points. That’s not the way he needed to end if he had any hope of making a comeback. Mechanical woes again plagued Busch and he limped home 28th. No doubt he has the talent, now if he only had the equipment. Of course they have plenty of time to figure things out before the next Chase a year from now, because they are done with this one.